The Portage Collegiate Marketing Program's planning a new event for early next month. It's called the Entrepreneurial Showcase, where students will vie for local business people to invest a portion of $10,000.00 in their enterprises. The money won't be real, but the process will. Stride Credit Union CEO Brent Budz feels it's important.

"Understanding how business works, and the investment required, from a business perspective," he says, "But also personally. I think us, as stakeholders, if we help contribute in that learning process, we're more than happy to do that."

Dave Rodgers of Diamond D Auto Sales agrees, adding the business people involved have to take the process seriously.

"For them to move forward, and to become an entrepreneurial person, or open a business, you have to tell them the real deal," he stresses, "And if it's not a great idea, tell them it's not a great idea. If it's a great idea, go with it."

Grade 12 student Kailee Fraser isn't concerned the money's not real.

"Because I've never done it before, so it's new, experience-wise," she says, "I'm excited to share our product with people, because we worked really hard on it."

Kyla Smith is Fraser's business partner in LEEF Kosmetics, which stands for Lips Enviromentally Eco-Friendly. She feels this will be a great experience.

"We want to take it further, and try and have it actually in businesses," she says, "So we invited businesses that we think could actually buy it, so we could gain opportunities and relationships."

Business Education Teacher Sean Hopps outlines why they decided on this format.

"I've found that a practical application of knowledge was a much better experience for the kids than just learning book work," he says, "Being able to practically apply something that they learned, and take an approach that way, I think they're learning way more, I think they're benefiting way more from it. And in the end, I think it'll set them up for a lot better success in the future."

The showcase is April 5th, from 2 until 7 pm, at Portage Collegiate.